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Merrie Melodies: I Wanna Be a Sailor (1937)

Name: I Wanna Be a Sailor
Genre: Animation
Released: 1937
Duration: 7 min

19377 minAnimationStrong rights evidenceTV episode

Merrie Melodies: I Wanna Be a Sailor (1937) is a 7-minute animated cartoon that airs free on Starlite TV's Saturday Morning (CH 7) channel. Our rights research indicates it is in the U.S. public domain (evidence below).

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About Merrie Melodies: I Wanna Be a Sailor (1937)

I Wanna Be a Sailor is a 1937 American animated comedy short film directed by Fred Avery. The short was released on September 25, 1937.

A mother parrot in a cage is teaching her three children to say, "Polly want a cracker." The first two kids, Patrick and Patricia, manage after some effort, but Peter boldly refuses as he wants to be a sailor like his father. His mother tells him that their father, which unbeknownst to Peter is an abusive drunkard, left for Catalina (misremembered as Hawaii) while being drunk and never returned home. She flashed a searchlight and hoped for his return to no avail. To his mother's horror, Peter cries because of being disappointed, not convinced that being a sailor would be a mistake.

Summary adapted from the Wikipedia article I Wanna Be a Sailor (text available under CC BY-SA 4.0).

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Airs on

Saturday Morning - CH 7, Cartoon TV

Rights & source

Basis: Documented as U.S. public domain (e.g. copyright not renewed / no notice)
Evidence: Listed in Wikipedia "List of animated films in the public domain in the United States" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animated_films_in_the_public_domain_in_the_United_States), which cites Film Superlist / copyright renewal records (not renewed). Character names/designs may remain trademarks; no character art used in site branding.
Music: Film soundtrack falls with the film; separately published songs not individually cleared.
Source: Internet Archive

How we check every title: Content & Rights.

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32 Merrie Melodies episodes on air in this channel.